Some advice that I have found useful, over the years, is to listen to the more senior members of your family if you want to get leads for your family history research.
Watch out for those false assumptions, however.
The stories that they have to tell can sometimes be coloured by the passing of time and not be a hundred percent accurate.
They can sometimes reflect the "received wisdom" that has been passed down in the family to them, that is stories that have been adjusted to blur over anything that was thought embarrassing to previous generations.
I'm sure you know what I mean, an aunt and uncle who were not married but lived together because one or other of them had a legal spouse elsewhere! The family closes ranks and decides never to mention this in case it brings shame to them.
Oh how times have changed when today, cohabitation is not even given a second glance in Britain and many other places.
I've got stories that have sent me off in certain directions trying to find an ancestor of Irish birth, only to find he may well have been a colourful invention.
I've vague recollections of family tales of heroic deeds by certain relatives, when the reality was less prosaic.
Nonetheless listening to our elders is an important place to start and, on occasions, to go back to as a source.
I had a great opportunity, recently, to find out a bit more from my father about his youth, holidays with his parents and as a young man the trips he made on business.
The catalyst was a themed day out with him.
My Dad and I went for a Sunday meal in the dinning car of a steam train on the Great Central Railway at Loughbrough.
A problem can be getting the chance to sit down and talk with our parents about the old days.
In our case a birthday treat on the Great Central Railway steam train, offered a useful introduction to some stories from the past that I had not heard before.
I learned about my father's train trips from Birmingham to Devon on the Great Western Railway as a child.
Journeys he made in war time Britain, when he was no more than a teenager on leave from the Merchant Navy and travelling home in uniform to visit his mother.
He also recounted to me his foreign rail trips as a young professional architect attending possible developments in Portugal and Turkey before the days of inexpensive commercial flights to these places.
But while it is great to listen and record these stories we must remain vigilant.
So many of us in our genealogy research have jumped to conclusions based on incorrect information, more especially when we are just starting out.
We are taught to listen attentively to family stories and tales, because we know that older family members are often our best source of information on our family history.
Memories, however, will often become faulty or can be exaggerated with the passing of time.
We need to have a healthy regard for this and always try to confirmed these oral histories by going to the actual records and documents to confirm what we have been told.
The same applies equally to printed sources - simply because a family tree or record transcription has been written down or even published in a book or on a website does not necessarily mean that it is correct.
Never make assumptions about the quality of the research done by others as we all make mistakes and that includes the professional genealogists! Always revisit your research and check to see if it may include inaccuracies.
Could you have misinterpreted some bit of information that someone else has written down or told you verbally? Have you jumped to a conclusion because it fitted the theory, but without sufficient proof? In spite of these warnings, please don't ever stop listening to family tales! They can be priceless.
Watch out for those false assumptions, however.
The stories that they have to tell can sometimes be coloured by the passing of time and not be a hundred percent accurate.
They can sometimes reflect the "received wisdom" that has been passed down in the family to them, that is stories that have been adjusted to blur over anything that was thought embarrassing to previous generations.
I'm sure you know what I mean, an aunt and uncle who were not married but lived together because one or other of them had a legal spouse elsewhere! The family closes ranks and decides never to mention this in case it brings shame to them.
Oh how times have changed when today, cohabitation is not even given a second glance in Britain and many other places.
I've got stories that have sent me off in certain directions trying to find an ancestor of Irish birth, only to find he may well have been a colourful invention.
I've vague recollections of family tales of heroic deeds by certain relatives, when the reality was less prosaic.
Nonetheless listening to our elders is an important place to start and, on occasions, to go back to as a source.
I had a great opportunity, recently, to find out a bit more from my father about his youth, holidays with his parents and as a young man the trips he made on business.
The catalyst was a themed day out with him.
My Dad and I went for a Sunday meal in the dinning car of a steam train on the Great Central Railway at Loughbrough.
A problem can be getting the chance to sit down and talk with our parents about the old days.
In our case a birthday treat on the Great Central Railway steam train, offered a useful introduction to some stories from the past that I had not heard before.
I learned about my father's train trips from Birmingham to Devon on the Great Western Railway as a child.
Journeys he made in war time Britain, when he was no more than a teenager on leave from the Merchant Navy and travelling home in uniform to visit his mother.
He also recounted to me his foreign rail trips as a young professional architect attending possible developments in Portugal and Turkey before the days of inexpensive commercial flights to these places.
But while it is great to listen and record these stories we must remain vigilant.
So many of us in our genealogy research have jumped to conclusions based on incorrect information, more especially when we are just starting out.
We are taught to listen attentively to family stories and tales, because we know that older family members are often our best source of information on our family history.
Memories, however, will often become faulty or can be exaggerated with the passing of time.
We need to have a healthy regard for this and always try to confirmed these oral histories by going to the actual records and documents to confirm what we have been told.
The same applies equally to printed sources - simply because a family tree or record transcription has been written down or even published in a book or on a website does not necessarily mean that it is correct.
Never make assumptions about the quality of the research done by others as we all make mistakes and that includes the professional genealogists! Always revisit your research and check to see if it may include inaccuracies.
Could you have misinterpreted some bit of information that someone else has written down or told you verbally? Have you jumped to a conclusion because it fitted the theory, but without sufficient proof? In spite of these warnings, please don't ever stop listening to family tales! They can be priceless.
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